Ok, who cares what I think. :) I'm just a UI developer right now hoping to gain the skills to become a UI Designer. The switch is not an easy one, for me anyways. Especially since I am very implementation focused. When I was younger I loved fixing things but eventually you run out of broken things and start wanting to improve working things; to make them better. So you take them apart and well it's all downhill from there; those things are never the same. In engineering academia, you are given many problems for which to implement solutions. It's fun, challenging, and it prepared me immensely for a career as a developer where again problems are given. The danger in this is when you become so solution focused you start developing solutions for which there are no problems. I in fact have a library of very interesting widgets that have no real place in the world.
As a UI designer you must first find problems or requirements by deriving them from some very fuzzy data. This can be very tedious and arduous if you have the wrong process and finding the correct process seems very difficult. I'm not used to dealing with fussy topics but I am certainly willing to start.
So I just wanted to breifly comment on this amazing new interation design built by this dude, Jeff Han. The technology he uses is called the "Multi-touch" screen which is an innovative twist on the old touch screen. Instead of just recognizing where a user touches as with current touch screens, this system seems to consider how the user is touching the screen as a whole new way of intuitive communication with computers. I'm very certain this technique will play a major role in how personal computers and devices are designed in 5 - 7 years.
6 comments:
For starters, I am glad to find another developer in the HCI program. You're the only other I've encountered so far.
You make interesting points. How many features were included in an application entirely due to Techincal Determinism or were included first for this reason and justified by the user's needs later.
Jeff Han has definitely made a breakthrough with this new technology. It will be interesting to see how this will influence the design and function of many other products.
I think it's great there are UI developers who are interested in acquiring new skills relating to UI design. I'm just curious as to what got you interested in UI design?
jenni,
True, I don't think that many users are asking for a multi-touch interface and they certainly don't think they need it. But way back, in the day, I doubt computer users cared much for a mouse before they used one. In my opinion the 'true' direct manipulation of the multi-touch screen is more intuitive than a mouse, just as a mouse was more intuitive than keyboard arrow keys so long ago. So I would say this fits the need of providing a better user experience overall via better real-world "mapping". And one day this 2D multi-touch screen will be replaced by a more intuitive "3d full-touch" interface. :)
anna,
Well the trouble with being a developer is that it's just not cool to be a developer forever. Usually you will be pushed into a managerial or architech position. Managing sounds really lame and as an architech you really have to know a million different technologies that are always going "in" and "out" of style to be effective. That's for nerds.
HCI and IA are technology independent and still very interesting and challenging and it seems to help to have a sound understanding of many of UI technologies. Many developers like me have been forced to create many user interfaces in the past. They just weren't very good. :)
jenni,
duh, now I'm just realizing your comment was not directed towards the multi-touch screen. Sorry, it's very late and i still have another post and comments to do. :(
Reading about the multitouch screen reminded me of something I read on the IBM Research Labs wesbite.... It doesn't actually have anything to do witih touching anything LOL IBM is in the process of developing sensor emotion technology. Meaning- if you want the stove to turn on, all one has to do is LOOK at it and the stove would be able to KNOW what you want it to do. Kinda creepy and seems impossible but, I am sure other technologies in the past were thought of the same way and here they are today! ;0)
Post a Comment